Re: RC: who pays?

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Mon, 8 Mar 1999 17:21:42 -0600, "Louise D Burton"
<FIREDANCEFARMS@prodigy.net> wrote:

>My LD numbers were half of usual, and the weather was great. 
>WHY???  I had several phone calls from people who wanted to try endurance,
>but as soon as I mentioned the fee, they hung up!  Several people said
>"they could just as easily do a 25 at home".

This is exactly the reason I cancelled my plans to hold the Moonlight
Madness ride this summer.  I can't afford to lose money on the ride,
and I firmly believe that the extra ten dollar fee for non-member LD
riders would cause a loss.  I looked into having a Competitive Trail
Ride instead of an LD ride, but I just didn't have any good indication
of whether that would work in my area.  I also seriously considered
not charging the fee, but paying it out of ride funds.  Again, that
would either cause a loss directly or force me to raise entry fees --
which could also cause a loss by lowering the total number of entries.

The AERC does *nothing* to earn this fee -- the bookeeping is already
paid for by the standard sanction fee.  Calling it a bookeping fee is
just smoke and mirrors.  It is a way to get extra money for the AERC
from people who have no vote for Directors -- but, once again, I
believe it is very short-sighted.  I believe the long-run cost to our
sport and the AERC is greater than any benefit.  It's the ride
managers who are hurt the most directly, but in the end everyone
suffers (for example, there will now not be a moonlight ride in
Colorado this summer).

I used to be proud that our organization welcomed non-members to our
rides, and didn't charge them extra as some other organizations did.
Too bad that the lure of extra money from non-members won out.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
http://www.mti.net     Business
http://www.rnbw.com    Personal


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